It had been few days since we crushed the Wolf taken tribe. However, we had to stay behind to heal the women and kids held imprisoned in the village.
Because poison in drinking water didn't discriminate. In fact, poison didn't discriminate against its user.
The only reason I dared to use these potent poisons was because I managed to a way to keep stuffing the poison into the Wind tiger Left leg soul bone. The method was simple in hindsight but obviously tough for those without knowledge of the soul power pathways. One wrong move would result in poison spreading instead of being imprisoned in the soul bond.
The method involves guiding my soul power to carry the poison into the soul bone and cut off soul power connection layer by layer in the poisoned part of soul bone. All so that passive flow of soul power won't lead to the poison breaking out again.
It was at this point that I understood there was a price for stuffing the poison in soul bone. The amount of power I could mobilize was decreased. The only solution was either stuffing the poison in poison attribute soul bone or cleanse the soul bone with antidote.
At least, it was better than dying from poison. In a way, my capacity to fight against poison soul masters had improved. Hence, the mass treatment of the entire village from Death kiss's poisoning was a piece of cake for me. In fact, my lack of fear for the accidental poison exposure helped me in surpassing Ye Lingling in patient count.
Of course, the villagers would never know that we were behind the poison or even the fact poison was used in taking down the wolf taken. After all, the good reputation from our selfless act [in their perspective] didn't need to be marred with such a black spot like poison.
Using this chance in treating the people we rescued, I kept improving the antidote formula. Since the base formula already existed, the experiments were only on improving the efficiency and hence, there were not even much side effects. The last part eased in consciousness in utilising the opportunity to perfect the poison-antidote combo.
I wanted to turn Death's kiss and it's antidote into a sect knowledge. Yes, I decided that I needed my own powerbase. The options were either an academy like Shrek or a sect. In a way, academies held more significance in lasting as a legacy, but the sect had one bigger advantage. They could be focused on lineage of sect masters. Meaning, my kids and their own progeny would be reaping the benefits. I was a selfish man. I didn't want all the wealth and knowledge I gather to benefit some unknown grand-disciple in the future while my progeny line disappear into mediocrity.
Now, I was missing three critical things- a location, wealth and the most important of all, a die-hard backing.
"Big Brother Zhang Kun, we were done with the healing of the amputated women and giving them the prosthetics or wheelchairs. Is there anything else to do?"
Looking at my Junior sister, I smiled.
I had been helping Ye Lingling in healing them while also teaching her as much medical knowledge as I could. To my surprise, she was showing far too much progress. It might be because of her martial soul, but she completed a year's worth of med school studies in a few months.
She was much more competent and serious, unlike my infatuated teacher, who was clearly smitten with Su Muan.
I couldn't believe he was happily fucking the women who seduced him for information.
[Chapter 14: She is the one from Shian Ti' s team who seduced Mo Tian for information.]
If it was me, I would never even think about it. My paranoid nature would keep making me doubt her at every second. Perhaps, that was why teacher could be happy while I don't seem to have any peace. Despite, our obviously perilous circumstances.
"U-Um, Z-Zhang Kun, May I come in?"
"Hmm,"
I gave Ye Lingling a sharp look, which got her to put away her disgusted look. Under my admonishing looks, she called in Chu Jian, " Come inside, Big Brother Chu Jian."
The one who came inside my tent was Chu Jian, an 18-year-old orphan who was allowed to stay alive by the wolf tribe. The reason for that becomes clear to anyone who sees him.
He had silver hair all over his body, which, when combined with his bulky build, gave him a rough, hairy, rugged look, like a renowned actor from my previous life.
But, one could rapidly understand that such handsomeness was not meant to be when one looked at his right hand. A long hand completely covered in thick fur grew from his hand, and the sharp, curved claws that shone from their base in his nail beds to the tip.
Chu Jian, level 9, Wolf Hand-marital soul.
It was the rare body marital soul that was shunned across the world. Unlike normal soul masters, the martial soul of body soul masters was an integral part of their bodies.
Coupled with the fact that the hand looked exactly like the StormWind demon wolf tribe, it was no wonder the wolf tribe allowed him to survive and why survivors from the village hated him.
He was the only adult male in this village, and he was hated and spurned by everyone here.
"Zhang K-Kun, I informed Sir Shian Ti of your message regarding the patients. T-That they can move now without worsening their c-conditions ."
Feeling curious about the Shian TI, who seemed to have locked himself, I asked Chu Jian, "So, what's his answer?"
"H-He said that he had been waiting for this for days. He will make preparations and ensure everything is ready for us to move the first thing in the morning."
Hmm, what's going on? Shian Ti had locked himself for days. Is he about to break through, or is he hiding something else?
[Author: ~_~]
I thought we had some level of trust, but he was hiding something. I couldn't help but suspect that he was sent on orders from the Star Luo Empire. But, there was a reason even I had to put aside my suspicion. It was because we were too weak.
If Shian Ti wanted to capture us, he could do that as long as he was ready to pay the price. The only ones who could put up a fight were Teacher, Mr and Miss Ju.
Me, Ye Lingling and Ju Lian could be considered support at best. That was when I was being generous in referring to us as that.
Of course, given enough time, I could poison anyone to death. It might be because of the effect of that night's success that I was becoming more and more enamoured with poison.
"...kun, big Brother Zhang Kun, CAN YOU HEAR ME?"
I was knocked from my thoughts by Ye Lingling's call. I noticed that she was pouting because I had disregarded her words. Because of the adorable sight, I couldn't help myself from pinching her cheeks.
It was one habit that followed into this life, pinching the cheeks of cute kids.
"AH, AH, enough. Teacher has become weird in the last few days. You see..."
I immediately got up and said, "Wait a minute, I need to go out for a second."
Fuck no, I was not in the mood to give sex education to a child.
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Seeing I was far from the village, I took out the Right leg soul bone from Cyan Wolf-taken. Fuck, a 30,000-year-old soul bone. If the left soul bone from Prince Dai Huo could be considered a treasure, then this was even better.
In my estimate, my left soul bone is between 10,000-20,000.
The soul bone alone from Cyan Wolf taken could make my soul level get another enormous boost.
So, I immediately started on the task by absorbing the soul bone.
ROARRRRRRRRRRRR
Feeling the mad blood lust that came from the soul bone, I was fucking surprised. To think that the soul bone possessed a blood lust like this. Interesting. It told good things about the ability in the soul bone.
However, I was no joke.
Shut up
It didn't even need the help of the consciousness in my soul rings. The blood lust was easily controlled with my willpower alone.
Soon, I ran my experiment for external soul bone tail.
[Starting the experiment no 2.
Processing the data.....
Attributes Fire: 50%, Ice: 50%.....
ERROR
Resonance from left leg soul bone towards the soul power from Right leg soul bone.
Stabilization of soul power from Right leg soul bone- completed
Experiment failed]
"AGH!"
Fuck, I couldn't even do a thing before the soul power that stabilized run through my soul pathways, increasing my level to 23.
"Hahaha! It's ironic that an opportunity others envy has become my curse."
Soul bones that had resonance were a good thing. Meaning one could form a soul bone armour like Tang san. Of course, Tang san's case was not applicable because his soul bone was forced to become compatible under the power of Godhood.
However, this once in a lifetime miracle had disrupted my experiment to form an external soul bone.
SIGH
"Happy thoughts, Happy thoughts Zhang Kun."
After a reminder to myself, I immediately activated the soul skill, "Madness."
I could feel my muscles bulge from the soul power that was rampaging in my body. Soon, I could feel my eyes, ears and even my skin grew sensitive. Along with them, an intense desire to kill is surging through me.
[Processing....
100% increase in defence, speed and strength]
Taking a deep breath, I activated the pseudo purple eye technique I made.
I felt my spiritual power move into my eyes, bringing intense relief from the overwhelming killing intent, clearing the haze that came over my mind.
I felt like smiling whenever I looked at my spiritual power.
[ Spiritual power: Spirit Origin Peak [Bottleneck] ]
Yes, the bottleneck was the only thing that is stopping me from entering the next realm, the spirit connection realm. The place where my I could begin to truly control my spiritual power. I had put a half foot in it, ensuring me the ability to feel spiritual power but unable to use it. The spiritual attribute martial souls had it easy in using this spiritual power. No matter how I tried it was difficult to use it outside my body.
My thoughts ended abruptly when I felt my clothes my becoming tighter as my muscles bulge with power.
CREAK CREAK
But, I must say this again, the power of this skill was incredible. Feeling my bones creak from the sheer power in my muscles, I felt intoxicated.
Summoning my silver alloy hammers, I charged them with soul power to the point that it far surpassing my limit of gear 5.
Kept on charging
[Warning, Soul power depleting ..]
Not caring about the warning, I continued. A soul skill which was the intended version of a rippling wave, always out of my grasp, was here.
I could feel it. Right now, , my body under the state of Madness, could do it.
Feeling my hammer on the right lit up with fire as flame cover skill activated. Meanwhile, my hammer on the left chilled under my ice control skill. I felt like laughing like a madman when felt massive force being generated from the opposing attributes.
Under the power of my spiritual power, I held down the pain from body, from being ripped apart. With a deep breath, I swung my hammers while balancing the attributes according to my AI.
"Sun-Moon revolution,"
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Seeing the rising sun, I absorbed the purple Qi for the day. Instead of feeling the cool sensation, I only felt the need to sleep.
Still, I felt like snickering although my broken body was bleeding heavily in a 100-meter-wide crater.
"ZHANG KUN."
Oh well, I better sleep.
--------------- A month later, Barrak kingdom's border with Heavenly Dou empire-------------
It had took been more than a week for me to heal. Of course, the major reason for the short duration was Ye Lingling's incredible martial soul. Even so, it was worth it.
The data I got from the experiment was enough for me to finally to form the skeleton of my ultimate soul skill.
A soul skill that would be synonymous with me.
[Sun-Moon Revolution: An explosion that occurs at the contact of opposite attributes, ice and fire, each powered by the same soul power.
Side effect-1: 100% shutdown of the host's soul power pathways.
Side effect-2: Host suffers elemental damage because of his presence at the centre of blast radius.
Improvement: The opposing rotation from the two attributes.]
Despite its outstanding name, it was a half-baked soul skill. Forget about it being a close-mid range soul kill. The fact it harmed me made it a joke.
A joke that everyone seemed to point out. However, I know that the self-destruction was only because my body couldn't bear the damage from fire and ice. So, I just needed to solve that. Tang San already showed me how.
It is only a matter of time before it was perfected.
We stopped in this countryside border town for only one reason. Because this restaurant in which we were currently having our lunch is the meeting spot designated by the Nine heart flowering apple user.
That's right. The lie that I told Shian Ti transformed into reality.
The blacksmith association had accepted to be the mediator between the two nine heart flowering apple users in the world, knowing that it was a once a generation event.
However, I must say that when compared to our status a few months ago, we were not well-received by the blacksmith association right now. Two princes of the Star Luo empire ordered a ban on the new weapons orders. But since they weren't the emperor, the order was only followed in name. Secretly, the weapon trade thrived due to the ongoing conflict.
But the fact remained the rising status of blacksmiths had stopped since my foray into the conflict for the throne backfired.
"Say, Ahh,"
"Ahh,"
The moment the teacher opened his mouth, a grape landed in it, while Su Muan started peeling the apples.
Mo Tian, my teacher, was happily eating the apples that Su Muan had peeled .
It was at this point that I realized why I had such a problem with teacher and Su Muan's relation.
I was jealous.
Of course, it was not envy at their sexual relationship. Instead, it was because they were happy.
The surety of their love for each other in such a short time, even in this suffocating situation, was fucking unbelievable. If it was lust, I could barely digest it. No, instead it was love.
The only other person who shared my feelings of pressure, unable to be at peace, was Shian Ti. Obviously, his reasons behind that were vastly different.
It frankly baffles me I was seeing a real life ntr. Though, it was done by teacher. The ntr was unknown to all the parties involved, including teacher himself.
Of course, If I was in my previous life, Hollywood would have shown this as a blockbuster love triangle/comedy.
"Good god, these people are like a band of wastes enjoying life rather than a group of fugitives."
The sudden voice coming from the seat in front of my table scared the shit out of me.
It was only a blink, after which I saw two people sitting in front of me. A middle-aged woman with red hair and green eyes, with heavenly built, sat in front of me, accompanied by a blonde youth in his twenties or late teenage years who gave smile.
It didn't even need to be said; she was a saint. Unlike the previous time, I was meeting one in real life.
Healing martial soul or not, just the sheer amount of soul power she had was enough to press us into the ground. The feeling of suffocation was normal. The sheer difference in strength made my body freeze up.
I knew that if she felt like it, we would die out of sheer suffocation. Of course, we didn't get such a treatment because of a single reason.
"Ye Lingling, come on."
With a wave of my hand, Ye Lingling, who was eating her food with her parents, stood up. However, she seemed to have frozen in fear at the lady.
"Come child. There is no need to fear me."
The moment the lady completed her words, it felt like I swam up from underwater. The sheer amount of air I took at once made me feel grateful for breathing.
Ye Lingling curiously went to towards the Soul saint, as if one sentence was enough to forget what we experienced just now.
Apparently, it was enough.
Considering that, Ye Lingling started laughing and giggling with the soul saint in the few moments of daze I had. It seems that in the brief conversation I missed; the soul saint had convinced Ye Lingling into showing her martial soul.
As soon, she possessed her martial soul, her yellow soul ring rose into the air, making the soul saint, happily laugh, "Good, good. At least your talent has not been destroyed. Even the spirit beast seems you chose seems to be good for you. Otherwise, your flower wouldn't be so vibrant."
Ye Lingling giggled like she was talking with a relative that spoiled her. "Yes, it was the master who chooses the right spirit beast for me."
That spoiled the mood of the soul saint. My master immediately got down on the knees and said, "Forgive me, Nine Heart saint, I didn't know how special Ye Lingling was when I accepted her as a disciple because of my ignorance."
The nine-heart saint released her martial soul, the Nine heart flowering apple, which released 2 yellow, 2 purple, 3 black soul rings. "Hmm, I wonder. You can't be so ignorant that you don't know about the significance behind her full innate soul power?"
The backs of everyone turned cold at that. While the novels showed the full innate soul power as if they were common vegetables, they were not. Full Innate soul power meant that the soul master had the qualifications to reach the Title Doulou at least, a level which was impossible for me.
So, no wonder she was unhappy that Ye Lingling got a useless [her perspective] master, making it difficult for her to find a more powerful master. Considering how much the soul land culture resembled China, it was difficult for two different master's to accept a shared disciple.
Seeing that things were becoming heated, I immediately got down to my knees and said greeted the youth, "It is a pleasure to meet you again, Prince Xue Qinghe. It is an honour to meet the crown prince of the Heavenly Dou empire again. As per my vow back then, I returned with the gift I promised."
The moment I revealed his identity, everyone kneeled one after another.
Unlike the Star Luo empire, the Heavenly Dou empire's inheritance was clear.
The person before them was destined to rule half of the continent, from unimaginable heights.
Just the fact that the soul saint silently retreated to stand behind the seemingly ordinary youth was enough to show how terrifying his status was in terms of power.
The silence in the room was demeaning. For people on my side must be shocked, especially Shian Ti, who would have never thought my so-called contact was the fucking crown prince.
As for the silence on the prince's part, it was a power play. At least, that was what normal folks think.
Considering it had been a year since the assassination attempt on the Heavenly Dou emperor, I was sure that the prince didn't remember me. Because I didn't meet the fucking prince.
In fact, this was the first time I saw him in real life and the prince didn't know that. No, it was right to say that Qian Renxue, who had stolen the identity of the prince using the orchestrated assassination on the emperor, would not know if I met the prince.
Title: Qian Renxue